


Oasis

by dethorats



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-10-25
Updated: 2011-10-24
Packaged: 2017-10-24 22:49:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/268763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dethorats/pseuds/dethorats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles and short fics about Nami and Vivi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Confession

Vivi is pale in the moonlight, alabaster skin and a patina of silver to her hair. Shadows nestle in the hollow of her throat, tuck themselves behind the delicate shells of her ears. One, more daring than the rest, has melted into swells of her cleavage, and Nami eyes it with something close to jealousy. Her princess is beautiful, ethereal, and Nami hadn’t needed last night’s backdrop of sakura snow nor this evening’s starshine to know that. Two more days until Vivi’s home and the fight really begins. They’re drinking, just the two of them, up and back in the stern between the navigator’s precious trees. It’s cool but not cold and the last of the snow melted just after noon.

Alcohol doesn’t usually affect Nami, at least not until she’s managed to drink her companions under the table. Sake shouldn’t be making her giggle and lean in against Vivi, laughing at a joke that really is stupid. But she’s been sneaking hits all day, shooing Sanji from the kitchen to nip at the stocks that usually he only has t guard from Zoro’s greedy hands. It’s added up and she and her princess are on equal footing now, a flush on Vivi’s cheeks and over the bridge of her nose from the cup Nami keeps refilling.

Nami is a brave girl but this is hard, what has driven her to liquid courage. She almost doesn’t want to say it, isn’t sure she will. Two days and Vivi will be a princess in more than name. Two days and it will really be the final leg. Luffy seems so sure of victory, and the Straw Hat pirates will guarantee it, but he seems even more sure that Vivi will be their nakama forever. Nami is not so blinded. Vivi speaks of her country the way the rest of them speak of their dreams. Alabasta is her dream and the Grand Line and One Piece and a world map would only take her far from it. There isn’t much time left.

Her brows knit and Nami considers lifting her head off Vivi’s shoulder. She is afraid to watch, to see, but even more afraid to let the words that clog her throat remain unspoken. She swallows and gathers her courage and Vivi interrupts her carefully gathered concentration by slipping a warm arm around Nami’s waist.

“Nami-san,” she whispers, her voice breathy and no longer holding the drunken amusement that has colored it for the past half hour. “Nami-san, I…”

Nami holds her breath and finds Vivi’s fingers, weaving her own into the spaces she encounters, filling them.

“…I like you.”

Vivi ‘s voice has thinned, nearly disappeared into the gentle murmur of wind and waves, but Nami still hears her words loud and clear. It’s in her, for a moment, to laugh at herself, at the pair they make. But the princess wouldn’t understand and that’s the last thing Nami can bear at the moment. So she draws herself up from the comfort of Vivi’s shoulder, catches the princess under the chin and turns her pretty face until pale blue eyes glance up and meet her own.

“Me too,” Nami admits and the way the corners of Vivi’s mouth curl upward is irresistible.

Sake, Nami finds after she has waved goodbye and shed the last of her tears, is bittersweet now, a drink she prefers to take alone.


	2. Umbrella

Two days of rain had turned the sandy soil into muck. The capital no longer carried the faint scent of camphor and heat and the smell of growth, organic and strong, filled the air. Nami’s body ached; dull throbs of pain in muscles pierced by spines and needles. She walked with the slow, careful gait of the convalescent, a certain stiffness to her movements, but her posture was good and bright eyes took in every detail of the palace. She priced vases and centuries-old artifacts absently, more from habit than any intended theft. It kept her mind off the twinges each step triggered.

She could have sent someone or asked, but Nami had a good idea where her quarry was. Besides, Vivi was home now and a princess in more than name while Nami was a fugitive. It helped to remember her place. The cane she leaned on to ease the weight on her bad leg clicked against the tiled floor, measured out her pace, and she counted past three thousand before she finally reached the terrace. It was still raining, a steady downpour from silver-grey clouds, and the oppressive heat of the desert kingdom was tamed for the moment. Nami propped a shoulder against one column and drank in the sight before her, as thirsty as the dry and dusty land.

Vivi’s head was tilted back, face raised towards the sky, and her hair hung down in a slick wet sheet, water dripping from the ends. Her clothing, a simple shift the same pale blue as her eyes, clung to her like a second skin, the contours of her body no longer hidden behind a shield of fabric. Feet bare but for a ring of gold around one toe stood solidly on the slippery flagstones, as if the princess was soaking up the rain from root and crown the same as any flower. Nami smiled and flipped her cane around.

The sound of raindrops on the umbrella made Vivi turn around and her eyes lit up when she saw the navigator although she was quick to scold the older girl for being out of bed. Nami shrugged beneath the sheltering stretch of oiled canvas, her attention captured by the hard peaks of Vivi’s nipples and the hint of dusky flesh she could see through a shift gone semi-translucent from the water. The umbrella tumbled from Nami’s hand as she stepped forward to catch the princess’s shoulder. Rain beat down on the back of her neck as she bent to taste a single droplet caught at the base of a slender throat. It tasted faintly salty, like the sea, and Nami laughed when Vivi shivered, hiding her sorrow and regret beneath the happy sound. Skin slipped across skin, Nami’s arm going around a sturdy shoulder and Vivi curling one about the navigator’s waist. They went inside together, to find the privacy of the baths one last time. Rain filled the cauldron of the umbrella and spilled out over the sides.


	3. Correspondence

When the letters come, now, it’s via albatross rather than seagull and the tired bird deigns to rest for a few hours in a shadow in the courtyard. It drinks plenty of fresh water and eats the fish Vivi leaves along with a few gold beri as payment. It’s hard to wait but she manages, making the task into a challenge, something to tax herself with as she faces yet another day of pleas for aid for rebuilding her battered country and the knowledge that Alabasta is changing but oh so very slowly.

The battered envelopes always smell like the sea and dried bits of salt cling to the seals. Sometimes Vivi tastes it, closing her eyes and remembering the feel of wind on her face and spray making her hair sticky. She reads the letters in the bath, leaving out the scented oils and bubble bath that can mask the scent of ocean and ink. Only there is her privacy mostly complete and her father and dear Igaram mean well but sometimes a princess needs to be alone and it’s too hard to explain the tears that escape sometimes. She loves her country dearly but her choice to stay wasn’t as easy as it might have seemed.

Nami’s clear script reminds Vivi of late nights lying in the navigator’s bed, watching with sleepy eyes as the girl draws her charts by lantern light and they talk in soft whispers broken only by laughter about the crazy things the boys have done during the day. She writes in code, especially now that the World Government’s flag has burned, oblique references to the nakama Vivi had shared and about their continuing adventures. The continued press coverage of the Straw Hat pirates help Vivi fill in the gaps and Nami’s accounts reveal the truth behind the government’s lies. Vivi fears for them and envies them and wishes her position actually held any sort of power but there is little she can do for them but hope and pray and remember that they were all strong enough to save her country.

The final few paragraphs are always more private and Nami’s hand seems softer somehow, more tentative as if she was writing in secret rather than out on the deck surrounded by the usual chaos of the crew. There’s always a memory, something small and intimate, she shares, as simple as a brief conversation or the way Vivi’s eyes had looked one morning as the sun rose. And then comes a wish or a hope for the future and Vivi hoards those as her treasure, as promises that have yet to be kept. Nami closes her letters without any endearments or the usual practiced phrases but Vivi doesn’t need to see the sentiments with her own eyes to know they exist.

Each letter reminds her of the time she spent with Nami, makes her ache with longing sometimes tinged with regret. And she can’t keep from closing her eyes, the water warm and cradling around her, as she pictures whatever memory Nami chose to share, places herself in the scene, and then moves it in another direction. The surface of the water barely ripples as Vivi’s fingers move between her thighs but the whisper of Nami’s name is loud against the tiles and the too-big room. It hurts to open her eyes, to break the illusion but Vivi has resolve to spare and she spends the rest of her evening composing her reply.

**************

Each time the thick envelope arrives, the postal bird giving Nami a beady stare until she grudgingly digs a few beri from her pocket to place in its beak, the rest of the crew crowds around until Nami feels like she’s suffocating and has to use Sanji to get them off her back. Once she’s been properly tended to, drink or treat in hand and Luffy’s excitement barely reined in by the snack filling his cheeks and Zoro’s restraining hand on one shoulder, she finally carefully breaks the many seals and bindings that have kept the envelope safe and unopened. There are individual notes inside and tiny gifts or trinkets and Nami doles them out, amused and pleased at the way Vivi remembers even the newest crewmembers, the ones she knows only from news clippings and Nami’s letters.

Then comes a longer letter, something pleasantly chatty and filled with news of their friends and allies in Alabasta. Vivi writes of the country’s progress, of Pell’s recovery, and of the way Toto is finally putting on weight again now that he has Kohza to help dig out the oasis. Sometimes she mentions other news, elaborations on things the Straw Hats have seen in the papers. The boys usually scatter once Nami begins that part but Robin always listens attentively, chin in one elegant hand as the woman she had once called an enemy now helps to keep them free. Pleasantries close the letter and Nami carefully slides it back in the envelope and goes into her shared cabin to put it away.

In that small scrap of privacy, she can finally pull out another, smaller envelope. Vivi’s elegant cursive makes the letters of her name look lovely and the paper is so smooth against her fingers. A whisper of perfume wafts up, tickles Nami’s nose. It’s the same scent Vivi had worn once they’d won, once they got to sleep in the palace rather than on sand. Notes of jasmine and something spicy and Nami closes her eyes and wishes she could bury her face in Vivi’s neck, rub her nose in the princess’ soft hair, cover herself in the scent.

Vivi’s private letter is always brief but it manages to make Nami flush, grinning at the audacity of her princess and the knowledge that only she knows just how mature – and immature – the younger girl can be. Intimate words make heat rise in Nami’s belly and she carefully locks the door. Robin will know, because she knows everything, but she won’t mind, and the rest of the crew has learned to not risk the navigator’s temper when her door is locked.

Bright eyes dance over the princess’s words and Nami places herself just so on the bed. She follows written suggestions, teasing her nipples and skimming her fingers up the insides of her thighs. Finally she closes her eyes and lets her fingers venture through the curls that cap her sex. It is Vivi’s fingers she pretends are stroking her just so, pinching and rubbing and greedily venturing into warmth and wetness. If she concentrates hard enough, Nami can almost feel Vivi lying next to her, against her, and it is at those times that she convulses with the most pleasure, panting afterwards with her cheek against the letter. Later, once she feels more like herself and not so lonely and bereft, she digs out her pen and some paper and goes to sit up on deck to write Vivi in turn.


	4. In the Bath

Vivi’s voice is hushed and full of wonder, the hand with the washcloth stopping over Nami’s shoulder blade. Giants and dinosaurs and an island of cherry blossoms fill her sky blue eyes when Nami glances back over her shoulder. It’s a lovely sight and it makes Nami’s heart stutter as she comes to a sudden decision. They can’t - she can’t - drag things out any longer. Luffy is awake now and they have to leave. It would be too cruel to stay, to risk bringing more trouble down on Vivi and her father and their battered, tired country. And the relief and delight that gleam in Vivi’s eyes will wear off and reality will set in. Nami doesn’t want to stay and see that, to hear the words that would break Vivi’s heart to speak. And there’s a tiny bit of hope that she clings to, a chance that she would never bet on except it’s Vivi, that the princess will make a hard decision of her own. Nami can’t ask it of her, for it wouldn’t be fair, but she can hope. And she can make the last hours she has in Vivi’s home happy and memorable. The tops of heads, missing only a green one for which she could deduct some interest but certainly won’t, line the dividing wall and Nami rolls her eyes, grins, at Vivi, and stands up with her towel loosely held around her body.


	5. Labor's Fruit

On the day she mastered the formation of rain clouds, Nami had to excuse herself. She brushed past the old men who had become her teachers, Haredas alone not complaining as she roughly made her way through them and headed for the door. She ran when she was free, the cloud turf strong and springy beneath her feet and nothing at all like the treacherous footing of sand. She ran until her lungs burned and her body cried out for air, ran until she could no longer see the houses and laboratories of Weatheria, just wispy trees and clouds and sky. Nami wanted to see the sea, to catch a glimpse of the ocean so far below, but the island was bigger than she’d thought and she could run no further.

Trembling fingers touched her Clima-Tact, traced over new modifications that hadn’t been wrought by sniper’s hands. It took her a few moments of concentration, of sensing the right levels of pressure and moisture and air current, before the small dark cloud coalesced above her head. With a little more effort, a touch of cold, a puff of breeze, it would darken even further, produce a scattering of raindrops. It was all so easy, now that she understood, now that she knew how. And no dance powder, no illicit tool, was necessary.

Nami slowly sank to her knees, Clima-Tact slipping from her grip and the cloud she had made gradually dissipating without her attention to keep it primed. Her fingers sought the soft skin of her forearm, traced over a mark that was there even though she couldn’t see it. The sky, as she deflated further and stretched out on her back, was a very particular shade of blue. This was all for Luffy, her training, but also…just in case.


	6. Fighting the Odds

Only the hair was the same; a shade of blue the perfect match to the desert sky at noon. Nami traced one finger along the edge of the photograph and sighed. Two childhoods dashed away by unscrupulous men, two girls moved into action when the adults around them could only wait and suffer in silence and fear. The twelve-year-old Vivi smiled at her, a bright grin beamed squarely at whoever had held the camera. Dressed in a simpler, more modest version of the dancing girl outfits Sanji had found for them, this Vivi still had innocence in her eyes, faint traces of baby fat curving her stomach, and there was no wistfulness lurking at the corners of her mouth. Her Vivi was no longer this person. The last vestiges of innocence had vanished from the princess’s eyes when the bomb exploded high overhead and her people kept on fighting. Maturity and necessity, nothing cushy about Ms. Wednesday’s life, had strengthened and hardened her body. Nami’s lips and hands and tongue knew only flat planes and the firmness of abdomen hidden beneath soft skin. As for the wistfulness, at sixteen Vivi would never again be a child and the navigator wondered whether it was for her lost self or for the world that made her princess temper nearly every smile with a touch of regret and longing.

The king found her there, the photo album open on the table to an Alabasta she would never know. She put on a happy face for him, every inch radiating eager, somewhat greedy but smart young woman and took him up on his offer of books with no hint of demure or coy hesitation. His dark eyes grew soft and hauntingly familiar as he watched her and a ghost placed a warm arm around her shoulders. Nami shook her head at the photograph in his hands when he tried to press it into her palm. It wasn’t a memory, a Vivi, that belonged to her. The princess she knew, the one her head knew she would soon be leaving behind, belonged solely to her. Alabasta was safe and its princess had returned. Vivi would be growing and changing again, from determined and desperate friend of pirates into a young woman being groomed for the throne. Her heart railed a little against how unfair it was but Nami squashed her emotions ruthlessly. She had growing of her own to do and a map of the world to make. And if nothing else, Luffy and his crew had given her back hope and a belief in the seemingly impossible. They’d done the same for Vivi. Even on the Grand Line, a pirate and a princess couldn’t work. But Nami would fight with all she had to see that the same wasn’t true of a queen and the world’s greatest cartographer.


	7. Princess

"Princess." The word slips out with her sigh as her fingers slowly trail down the velvet skin of Vivi's stomach. She isn't sure exactly why. Normally Vivi isn't 'Princess' unless she's teasing her or is a bit annoyed. But now, laying here under the stars and watching the way Vivi's eyes shine in the moonlight, it seems right. So near to Alabasta, the rise in temperature has been such that sleeping in the closeness of the cabin didn't seem right. So near to Alabasta that Vivi's excitement is palpable, obvious in every word she says, every gesture. The smile on her face is genuine at last, happy even in its fierce determination. Crocodile is going to pay for what he's done to her and to her land. But it's the land itself, and its people, that are bringing Vivi joy and a small measure of peace.

Vivi doesn't really react to the word. A slight crinkle around the eyes maybe. And she doesn't move away or protest when Nami lifts her head off of her own hand, inching even closer so that she's resting in the cradle of space formed by Vivi’s neck and shoulder. The air is warm, warm enough that sleeping on the deck seemed like a good idea, sleeping in underwear with the boys firmly banished to their room or the kitchen seemed even better. The blanket they're laying on smells like Nami, ink and citrus and the sea. It's started to pick up hints of Vivi, eucalyptus and warm stone. But desert people don't sweat as much as those who live where it rains or snows on a regular basis. So the scent is fainter. Even now the heat makes itself known.

Yet Vivi is cool beneath her fingers, against her cheek. Nami wonders, this close to her home, whether it's still okay, whether she can pretend that Vivi is hers, and theirs as nakama, rather than belonging to a whole nation. And she wonders why she had to say it, that word. The word she already knows will most likely take Vivi away. And yet, as she lets her hand wander further down the plane of Vivi's stomach and abdomen, it's also fitting. For there's nothing more in the world that she wants at that moment than to worship her, pay her homage.

"Princess." She says it again, this time with a hint of certainty behind it before nuzzling in, tongue flitting out to taste the soft skin behind Vivi's ear. Vivi sighs, curls her arm up around Nami and strokes gently down her forearm. It's enough to spark tingles, sensation straddling the line between tickling and arousing. Nami "mmmms" and sucks gently on Vivi's earlobe. The hand she's been trailing oh so slowly has reached the demarcation line of Vivi's underwear. She lets a fingertip, no more than that, slide underneath. It grazes from side to side, skimming over soft warm skin, and Vivi shifts ever so slightly, fingers slipping further down to gently close on Nami’s wrist.

Instantly Nami stills and turns to look, a question in her eyes. Vivi’s own are bright, alive, and a slow smile spreads across her moonlit face as she lets go. Nami hovers, frozen, until Vivi threads those same fingers in her hair. Her thumb strokes the line of Nami’s jaw, brushes feather-light across one eyebrow. And then pressure from where those fingers are cupping the back of her head is pushing Nami down. Vivi is sweet, always sweet, but with more heat than Nami ever expects. Their lips part at the same time, and Vivi lets out a breathless little laugh, pulling Nami even closer, inviting her in with a swift flicker of hot wetness.

Vivi’s mouth is no longer unfamiliar, but her mood dictates that Nami must explore every nook as if this was new and she was trying to win over one nervous but eager girl once more. Her tongue moves languidly over Vivi’s, coils around it, slips away to feel the texture of back teeth before coming back once more to tangle, wrestle gently. She lets Vivi win, the young princess moving the battleground to Nami with a surety that would have been lacking even a week ago. There’s been little to do since leaving Drum Island except to concentrate on speed. The weather has been clear and anxiety mounting, so Nami happily took it upon herself to relieve some of Vivi’s tension. Tonight is a culmination of sorts, an end to the way things have been. They’ll make landfall in Alabasta tomorrow.

As they break apart, Nami remembers her fingertip is still trapped exactly where she wants it. She moves it slightly, raises an eyebrow at Vivi in request. A slow blush spreads outward from the bridge of the princess’s delicate nose, colors her cheeks. She nods slowly, a little hesitant. She has an inkling of what Nami has in mind and she wants it, just…it’s new. But it’s worth it for the bright grin that lights up Nami’s face and the gentle, melting look in her eyes, so Vivi takes a deep breath and makes the first move.

Her fingers nimbly slip down Nami’s back, find the hooks that are keeping those lovely breasts confined. Nami is almost smirking at her now, waiting as Vivi deftly undoes them and pulls the bra straps down. The navigator removes her finger from Vivi’s skin and lets the article of clothing fall off her arms to the deck. Vivi’s hands are already traveling, edging down from Nami’s shoulders to cup each breast, as tan as the rest of the navigator from her habit of topless sunbathing. Thumbs shift over to flit across already hardening nipples, drawing a soft noise from Nami. She allows Vivi to do as she pleases, remaining still and just letting the pleasurable sensations wash over her, settle as a warm and growing ache at the base of her spine.

Finally Nami pulls away and bends her face forward over the princess. This night is supposed to be about more than just her. She coaxes Vivi up onto her elbows with a probing kiss, making her follow with a few nibbles on a full lower lip. Vivi flushes again, pink spreading all the way down her neck this time as Nami deftly unclasps her bra and murmurs in approval at the sight. Nami isn’t as reticent as Vivi and instantly lowers her tongue to run across one dusky nipple. Vivi gasps, collapses back onto the deck. Nami’s not about to let her escape and follows her, lips latching eagerly onto the newly pebbled flesh. She suckles tenderly, fingers rolling the other nipple to hardness. Vivi arches under her as Nami lets her teeth scrape carefully. She switches breasts, lavishing the other with the same care. Beneath her, Vivi is no longer holding back. She moves softly with each stroke of Nami’s tongue, hands on Nami’s waist squeezing to punctuate any particularly shiver-inducing touch.

When she has Vivi almost writhing beneath her, the grip on her waist clenching and unclenching rhythmically, Nami stops her mouth’s attentions to Vivi’s breasts and moves north to nuzzle the hollow of her throat. And then she climbs even higher, teasing Vivi’s lips apart and kissing her deeply. One hand kneads gently at the warm flesh in her grasp, the other skims down the princess’s stomach to slide under the band of her underwear once more. This time Vivi doesn’t stop her questing touch, though the skin beneath Nami’s fingertips moves away at first, dipping inward as Vivi takes a deep breath.

Nami moves slowly, taking her time and being careful not to do anything that will startle or frighten her princess. Her tongue swirls tenderly around Vivi’s, fingers of both hands now stroking in long languid circling pathways across skin that has warmed under her touch. The hands on her waist slowly loosen, and she can feel Vivi grin through their kisses as one inches around her waist and drops down to squeeze one firm cheek. If the princess is feeling comfortable enough to cop a feel…Nami grins herself and lets the fingers trapped by fabric move lower, low enough to brush through Vivi’s downy tangle of hair.

The princess freezes for a moment, and Nami can feel her whole body stiffen beside her, then sighs into Nami’s mouth and relaxes. Nami takes this as permission to continue on. She gives Vivi’s sweet, sweet mouth a final caress with her tongue and then moves downward, placing soft sucking kisses on the column of her neck and in the hollow of her throat. As she lavishes this care upon Vivi, Nami disengages Vivi’s hands from her waist, replanting one firmly on her breast. Vivi takes the hint, fondling it gently as Nami slides her body over Vivi’s and places her knees between Vivi’s own.

Hovering over Vivi, resting on knees and elbows, Nami tries to smile in what she hopes is both an alluring and a reassuring fashion. She withdraws her hand from the confines of the princess’s underwear once more and leans over to suckle at one peaked and waiting nipple. Her freed hand doesn’t move too far; Nami slides it down over the cloth, lower than her fingers have quested before. Her touch is light and Vivi utters a small gasp, lifts her hips up in search of more contact. Nami obliges her, stroking the princess with a bit more firmness. She pays special attention to applying pressure at the apex of her motions and soon Vivi is once more writhing from Nami’s ministrations.

She isn’t sure what moves her to act next – the erratic tugging on her nipple by Vivi’s clever fingers that is beginning to drive her crazy or the faint hint of wetness she feels on her skin as she rubs her hand between the princess’s thighs – but she knows she has to before she loses all patience and control. The navigator lets her mouth plot a path from Vivi’s bosom to the line of her underwear, taking a detour to map a circle around the small, perfect belly button and stealing a quick taste inside. Nami lips at the fabric, tugging it gently to get Vivi’s attention before she steals even lower and lets the princess know exactly what will be happening in the near future.

Vivi squirms, the pink shade of her face and neck darkening to a red blush as Nami kisses her there. Even through the cotton barrier Vivi can feel the heat and moisture of Nami’s mouth, and it makes her moan, makes her bring one fist to her mouth to keep another from slipping free, makes the other hand find Nami’s silky hair and thread through it, uncertain if she wants to pull Nami away or push her even closer. And then Nami licks her; a jolt of intense localized warmth and Vivi makes her decision. Her pelvis thrusts forward into the touch and Vivi takes her hand away from her mouth long enough to speak.

“Nami.”

Her voice is rather breathless and it is with a distinct feeling of smugness that Nami raises her head and waits to hear what else Vivi has to say. The princess takes her time, getting her wind back and calming the sensations running through her body enough that she stops the shuddering that had begun to shake her from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. Her tongue darts out, wets her lips in that slightly nervous habit that she has, and then she captures Nami’s gaze with the bright intensity in her pale blue eyes. Nami’s always thought they look like how the sky must in the desert, somewhat washed out from the heat but able to shimmer with unexpected images that haunt the mind.

“Nami. Nami, I…would you…?”

Vivi’s hesitation is adorable and Nami watches as the already dark blush on her skin impossibly deepens. As the pause stretches out, Nami is ready to go ahead and just save poor Vivi the agony of asking, but the princess manages to overcome her embarrassment at the last minute, a whispered “please?” finding its way to Nami’s ear. That one tiny word is all that Nami has been wanting and she nods her head solemnly even as a beaming smile spreads from ear to ear and threatens to crack her jaw. Fingers that are so often ink-stained, calloused along the side of her middle finger from long hours of holding a pen, reach out to reverently touch the last physical barrier that remains between them. Vivi closes her eyes but lifts her weight as she feels Nami hook her fingers under the fabric and begin to slide it down.

The cotton underwear goes flying over Nami’s shoulder as soon as she finally manages to get it free of Vivi’s ankles and Nami doesn’t really care if it even manages to reach the water and is lost (even if it was a cute pair, decorated as it was with little purple ducklings scattered all over) because all of her focus is now directed solely at pleasing Vivi. Nami settles Vivi’s feet on the deck with care, making room for herself as she lays down on the blanket, her own toes curling against the planking of the deck. Her shoulders fit neatly up against the underside of Vivi’s smooth, pale thighs, and Nami wraps her arm around one, the other reaching up between them to lightly weave through the hair a few shades darker than that gracing Vivi’s head.

Her thumb is practically shaking from barely restrained need as she finally, finally grazes it across sensitive flesh. Vivi rewards her with a barely audible moan and lets her knees fall open farther in invitation. Nami firms her touch, lets Vivi really feel it this time as she teases the pink swell that has just made itself known. And then she moves down again, parting the princess’s soft folds and letting her thumb dip in to touch Vivi inside where she is already so very wet and so very, very hot. She makes herself wait, doesn’t let herself take Vivi’s taste off her thumb, choosing to hold off for the few seconds it takes to look up at Vivi’s parted lips and scrunched up eyelids. She says it one last time, this time her voice full of the love she knows will not be enough to keep Vivi by her side on this wonderful, strange, crazy adventure she’s on. “Princess.”

For Vivi, the moment after Nami’s utterance of her name seems to extend almost into eternity. Anticipation is killing her and if it weren’t so incredibly overwhelming, she would have picked up on the note of regret that had shaded the longing in the navigator’s tone. But Vivi fails to notice and so fails to halt the proceedings like she would have otherwise. And then eternity ends in a fiery explosion of sensation as Nami touches her again, this time using her tongue where only fingers have ventured before. Vivi is no stranger to physical sensation. For most of her life she lived in a palace, and although she was not by any means a spoiled child, luxury surrounded her. She has slept upon the softest silken sheets, dressed in the most delicate of linens, swam in a lush oasis surrounded by golden sand. She is not unfamiliar with the harsher side of life either. Baroque Works was not an easy system to infiltrate. She has known cold, hunger, slept on both bare wooden floors and frozen ground. She has hurt others and been injured herself. She knows, despite being a princess, what pain and hardship and growing desperation feels like. Then Nami and her nakama arrived in her life.

Nami made her feel alive again, gave her back the hope that had slowly been bleeding away. How, when, why it had all happened Vivi didn’t know or understand, but somehow whenever the navigator was near only she was in focus. The rest of the world faded away. Even her beloved country shifted to the background for long stretches of time. And now Nami is giving once more: the woman who so often claims to act only for her own interest and profit is truly far more generous than she likes to let on. Nami’s newest touch, her latest gift, is making Vivi’s thighs tremble. She is grateful for the steadying hold around her legs. She is supported and safe and free to let go and just be.

Vivi is quivering around her, sighs and gasps trickling down the long and curving lines of the princess’s body to tease her ears and drive her onward. Nami is tender, gentle, and insistent. Despite this being the very first time she’s ever done this, the idea has been in her head pretty much since the morning after Vivi joined them.

The princess had slept on the floor in her room, not voicing any complaints about the accommodations. When she woke hours later, sitting up to stretch with one smooth spine-popping motion, Nami had been watching. Vivi’s hair was mussed, more out of her ponytail than in, her borrowed pajamas were rumpled, and there was a bit of sleep dust in the corner of her eye. The princess balled up her hands to scrub it out and somehow that action combined with a yawn to make the girl look young, vulnerable, and beautiful. The sight stayed lodged in Nami’s brain and melded with the more in-depth story of her country that Vivi recounted before they went to breakfast. In Vivi, in the princess’s struggles, Nami saw something of herself. Vivi was the first person to have ever heard the story of Nami’s past in her own words. And when the princess nodded at certain parts, understanding exactly what it is like to sacrifice part of one’s own soul and compromise cherished ideals for the sake of precious others, the navigator felt safe enough to hug her, to promise that her story will end the same way, victorious and surrounded by those who love her.

Nami is not Sanji. She doesn’t have the love cook’s discerning palate or his broad experience with different tastes or textures or scents. But even if she doesn’t have a name to describe what having Vivi on her lips is like, she knows it is something to savor. Despite Vivi’s softly uttered pleas, Nami refuses to relent, to give the princess any respite from her attentions. No, she wants it all; everything Vivi is able to give so that she has even more memories to treasure when her princess is gone. When Vivi starts arching into the pressure Nami is exerting with just her tongue, the navigator knows the princess is close. And because Vivi is a princess and by necessity must most likely marry in a suitable fashion, Nami only slides two of her fingers inside, careful not to delve too deeply into the warmth and wetness that sparks an answering tingle in her own body. It’s still enough for her to feel Vivi clench, pulsing around her fingers in an orgasm punctuated only by the low sighing of her name.

When Vivi stops trembling, Nami gently unwraps her arm from the princess’s thigh and crawls up the blanket to cradle the younger woman. Vivi is warm, flushed skin finally sweating a little, and she cuddles back into Nami’s embrace without hesitation. A few minutes pass, the silence broken only by the discordant rhythm of their own slowing breathing.

“Nami.” Vivi turns in the navigator’s arms, tilts her head up to kiss the other woman deeply, unheeding of her own flavor and moisture that still marks Nami’s mouth. Nami lets Vivi have her way, content to bask in the gratitude and pleasure the princess is trying to convey. “Thank you.”

“Mmm.” Nami doesn’t really have a response. After all, this had been about Vivi but also for herself. Instead she takes another path, one she knows will keep the princess distracted enough to prevent her from wanting to pay her in kind. For as much as Nami would like that, this is not the time. Odds were good that there would never be a time, not now that they had reached the sun blasted air radiating out from Alabasta. Far better that she worship her princess rather than meet her on equal footing. “You’ll be home tomorrow.”

Vivi squeezes Nami in a quick hug, buries her face against the navigator’s neck. “I know.” And then she’s pulling away, suddenly sensing the barrier Nami had begun erecting between them. Nami stops her, pulls her close. Even though she understands that Vivi isn’t someone she’ll be able to keep, she’s not ready to let her go yet.

“Vivi.” Nami sighs, brushes her lips across Vivi’s forehead. “No matter what happens, you’ll always be my nakama. That’s something that can never be taken away.”

The princess is idealistic, in some ways more idealistic than even Luffy, but she is not naïve. She knows Nami is right. There is a long road to travel just to free her country and she doesn’t need to be thinking about the departure of her friends. Now is when she must be strong and determined and grateful for all that she has been given. “Yes, Nami.” Vivi twists in Nami’s hold again, settling on her back and pulling the navigator after her. She makes sure Nami’s head is pillowed on her shoulder, one tan and tattooed arm draped warmly around her waist. Comfortable, Vivi lets her eyes drift shut and misses out on Nami’s bemused smile.

The night air is still warm enough that they could just sleep out here without covers, but Vivi is naked and Nami isn’t about to draw away to find the princess’s underwear. So, despite the heat, the navigator uncurls her arm from Vivi long enough to grab the end of the blanket and pulls it over them. Satisfied that Vivi’s modesty would be safe even if the boys were to stupidly break her orders and come up on deck before she calls for them, she snuggles back down against her princess. Tomorrow will dawn soon enough, but for now she can sleep secure in the knowledge that Vivi is hers alone for a few more hours.


End file.
